“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”
It is noteworthy that the man who, by the time of this writing had become the apparent leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15 & 21), and without challenge could lay claim to a blood relationship to the Messiah, introduces himself in his letter to the brethren as, “James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was a bond servant. A willing slave. Motivated by love. That is the only message meant to be conveyed in his salutation. We know very little about James and the other brothers of Jesus, which makes the big jump from doubter (Matt 12:46-50 Jn 7:2-5) to humble servant and leader of the church seem that much more amazing. We see him once and he’s challenging Jesus to go public and prove Himself, next time we see him he’s right up there with the Apostles in church leadership!
And here he is, writing a letter that he obviously intends to be issued over a wide physical area, since he addresses it to ‘the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad’.
Take note that he refers to his reading audience as the twelve tribes, yet calls them brethren (vs 2).
So that probably means that this was written after the martyrdom of James the brother of John, since it was that event that scattered the new followers of the Way back to their homelands. Also, since we know he is writing this letter to Christians, we take the word ‘brethren’ to be a reference to those in the faith with him, over and above simply being brothers according to the flesh; fellow Jews.
Men who know more than I do speculate that this letter was probably written prior to the Jerusalem Council, recorded in Acts 15, since there is no reference to that meeting in this letter. They reason that if he had written it after the council he would have mentioned here the conclusions arrived at during that meeting.
Take that with a grain of salt. After all, the Jerusalem Council resolved issues pertaining to the emerging Gentile churches, and as has been pointed out, this letter is addressed to the dispersed Jewish believers.
On the other hand, he would have wanted the Jewish followers of the Way in other regions, to know what decisions had been made concerning Gentile believers, so they would not in their ignorance impose regulations and restrictions on the Gentiles that were not necessary.
Just food for thought.
In any case, if the scholars are correct, this would probably be the earliest written of our New Testament books.
Getting back to the point, James is writing this to Jewish believers who have been scattered abroad by the beginnings of persecution. With these things in mind then, there should be no cause found for wonder that he would get his greeting out of the way and then dive right into the topic of trials and suffering.
CONSIDER IT ALL JOY
There are a few things that are common to every person who will ever be born onto this planet. One of them is that everyone dies. Another is that between birth and death we will have trouble.
Job’s friend Eliphaz knew whereof he spoke when he said, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.” (5:7)
Can you picture this? Job and his visitors have been talking for some time now and evening is coming, so someone builds a small fire against the cold night air, maybe to fix some s’mores…, then in the midst of Eliphaz’s speech someone tosses a chunk of wood on the fire and as lighter-than-air cinders rise up and disappear into the dark, Eliphaz snatches the opportunity for illustration and says, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘Trouble doesn’t just appear for no reason and from nowhere. Man was born for it just as surely as sparks fly up from the fire’.
The Jews as a people certainly can attest to this. I was watching a program where Jewish comedians were being interviewed and one of them was making quips about the ability of Jewish people to worry. I can’t remember his precise wording so I won’t put it in quotes, but the gist was this.
He said when you’re oppressed and persecuted for 500 years, that’s one thing. But after a couple thousand years a pattern begins to emerge, and you just begin to see that this isn’t going to stop.
The suffering of God’s chosen people over their history is not funny, of course. But sometimes the best humor is that which makes us chuckle at circumstances we cannot change.
That comedian hit on the outskirts of a truth we should all know without much deliberation. If we look back on the history of mankind from the earliest records to today’s newspaper it should not come as a shock to us that there is a pattern there.
Every day, in unlimited ways, there’s going to be trouble in River City.
Now this is not a deep spiritual truth. Anyone with a lick of common sense, in Christ or of the world, would agree with that assessment.
The difference that ought to stand out in the Christian is how he receives trouble; how he deals with it; the ultimate effect trouble has on his life.
Because there should be a marked difference between the man or woman of the world and the man or woman of God, and trouble and trials should be the things that most prominently manifest that difference.
If you, as a member of Christ’s body go through exactly the same circumstance of tribulation that your unsaved neighbor goes through and in the end onlookers can see no difference either in how you handled it or the final outcome in your life, then there is something wrong.
The most fundamental defense for that statement is the admonition of James to count it all joy. Because Christians are the only ones who are able to do that and should do that.
PRODUCING ENDURANCE
This thought takes my mind back to the early seventies for a couple of reasons.
One is that I remember a teaching going around in some circles that Christians were supposed to thank God for every pain, every illness, every trial that came into their lives. It was an incomplete teaching. Not entirely wrong, just unclear and confusing.
I remember thinking, ‘Does God really expect us to say, ‘thank you, Lord, for this cancer’? or ‘thank you that I just lost my job’?
Now, many years later, it is clear to me that the admonitions in the Bible to be joyful in suffering relate to suffering for Christ and in His name.
That can take many forms. Persecution, abandoning worldly comforts to follow where He leads, estrangement from unbelieving family members to name just a few.
So when James says ‘count it all joy’, he’s not exhorting believers to drum up some kind of silly happy feeling when they hit their thumb with a hammer or their camel dies in the middle of the desert.
The other thing contemplating this verse reminded me of was an evening in Merced, California, when I was standing outside a Christian coffee shop called the “Agape House”, witnessing to passers by. It was a Friday night and the custom of the local youth was to drag Main street until they found something more entertaining to do.
An Hispanic teen approached me as he and his buddies were coming out of a nearby store toward their car. He stopped right in front of me and asked, ‘What would you do if I just punched you in the mouth?’
I looked thoughtful for a moment and said, ‘I guess I’d have to thank Jesus’.
A confused look crossed his face and he said, ‘Why?’ So I said, ‘Well, you are only asking that question because you know I’m here to tell people about Jesus. So if you punch me in the mouth I’d have to assume that you did it because of that, which means I’d be suffering a little bit for the One who suffered so much on the cross for me. So I’d have to thank Him for counting me worthy to suffer in His name.’
Right about then, his friends, who had already climbed into the car at the curb, started calling his name and telling him to get in. He walked to the car, still with the puzzled look on his face, and before he got in the back seat he turned and looked at me again as though torn between staying to talk or going with his friends. Finally he sat down and closed the door and the car moved off and I never saw him again. I’ve often wondered if I’ll meet him in Heaven.
But that’s an example of what James is talking about. I didn’t have to thank Jesus for a punch in the mouth that night. I hope, if the kid had punched me, that I would have been able to live up to my words.
And as I said and you already know, personal persecution is not the only kind of trial Christians face. That’s why James said to count it as joy when we encounter ‘various’ trials.
The problem is, we don’t encounter very many trials, do we? At least, not for service to the Lord.
If we were each to write down all the trials and bad times we’ve experienced in our lifetime, which we will not because it would be kind of depressing, but if we did, I’d venture to guess that approximately 80 per cent would be because of something stupid we did. And 80 per cent might be a low estimate.
But think about it. Don’t we just by our nature automatically do what we can to avoid suffering?
When was the last time you drove by a bar or a pool hall with about 15 or 20 Harley Davidson motorcycles parked in front, and said, “Hey, Honey, let’s stop in and tell those folks about Jesus”?
Sadly, that which we work so hard to avoid, or passively avoid through inaction, is precisely what our forefathers in the faith gloried in.
Because they knew and understood the ultimate benefits of enduring trials and tribulations for Christ’s sake.
I want to read you some familiar verses, and I’ve taken them from the JB Phillips translation, because so often these great passages of scripture begin to lose their punch for us just because we become so familiar with the wording of our favorite translation. So listen with new ears to what Paul is saying here:
“We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. Yes, we who are living are always being exposed to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in our mortal lives. We are always facing death, but this means that you know more and more of life. Our faith is like that mentioned in the scripture: ’I believed and therefore I spoke’.
For we too speak because we believe, and we know for certain that he who raised the Lord Jesus from death shall also by him raise us. We shall all stand together before him.
We wish you could see how all this is working out for your benefit, and how the more grace God gives, the more thanksgiving will redound to his glory. This is the reason why we never collapse. The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh strength. These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain. For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent.” II Cor 4:8-18 J.B. Phillips
I want you to take note first of all that he was saying ‘we’ through the whole thing; not ‘I’.
Now if you go all the way back to the beginning of chapter three of II Corinthians, you’ll see that he’s talking about himself and those traveling with him as partners in ministry.
But Christian, you have to include yourself also, if you believe all the other things the Bible says about every believer in Christ.
The last verse of II Cor 3 says, “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit”.
You have to include yourself in that ‘all’, if you understand that God’s purpose for us is to conform us to the image of Christ. So following that line of thought, as Paul launches into chapter 4 and finally gets to the passage I read you a minute ago from the JB Phillips translation, you must also see yourself as included there.
And that brings me to ask, what, about our lives is producing endurance of faith in us? How often do we even find ourselves in a position to have to exercise faith? Are we just going to wait until some great time of trial comes to our nation that simply affects all of us; like the great depression of the 1920’s & 30’s and hope that our faith ‘muscles’ are big enough then to get us through?
I’ve heard a story of a man who found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.
Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled.
He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty, but they did not. Instead of developing into a flying creature, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The constricting cocoon and the struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings.
There are so many stories, from nature, like this one, and from history; stories that inspire us, that touch our hearts, that teach us the important lessons of life, that are all about suffering and endurance.
The greatest story of all, of course, is about Jesus, “…who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:2b
What gave Him the strength to endure the cross? I’ll tell you. It was a life of enduring in faith.
What? God needed faith?
The Son of Man needed faith. The incarnate God put Himself deliberately in the position of having to depend on the Father daily for guidance and strength and provision. Why? In order to identify with us, and live an example for us, so we would understand how indispensable it is that we depend upon Him daily for guidance and strength and provision.
BEING PERFECT
And this takes me back to my question of a few minutes ago.
What, about our lives, is in place to produce endurance and faith in us? We have become so self-sufficient and so adept at avoiding pain, inconvenience, persecution or abuse, I’m afraid we miss out on a depth of blessing that we cannot begin to know in our comfort and ease.
James says that the results of endurance of faith are being perfect and complete.
Now that use of the word perfect is obviously not intended to imply sinlessness or some kind of superhero state. It means spiritually mature and able to function successfully in the body of Christ, making wise decisions and able to help others.
That’s not a dictionary definition of the Greek word, it’s just a common sense understanding of what James is communicating.
Peter puts it this way: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result…”
Hear the word ‘result’?
…in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…”I Peter 1:6,7
So what’s the answer for us? I don’t know. Y’know, we preachers don’t always have the solution. We’re supposed to point you to the solution.
Do we go about looking for someone to persecute us? Sit in the city square and whip our backs? Set fire to our house and go live under a bridge?
Of course not. So what’s the answer? Could it be that before we take care of a problem ourselves and in our own strength we should ask God to take care of it His way?
Could it be that when we are maligned; when word comes back to our ears of some evil someone has spoken of us we should forgive them in our heart and let God take care of it, no matter what was said?
Could it be that our faith would be strengthened if we endure a time without some creature comfort that we can’t really afford but use a credit card to acquire because we just don’t want to wait; or we tell ourselves we deserve it?
Could it be that we should use prayer and bible study and our own imaginations and listening for God’s voice to figure out what we could actively be doing for Him that may or may not bring opposition, either from people, or spiritual opposition from the enemy, but just because we want to serve Him? Because any time you step out in faith, led of the Spirit to minister in His name and take the gospel to the lost you are going to meet with opposition of some type. You just will. And it will be an opportunity to rejoice, and to endure and to have your faith strengthened.
I don’t know, church. What’s the answer? What should we do? Shall we, as a body of believers, corporately ask the Lord to lead us in an adventure that will require faith and endurance?
We can sit back and be comfortable if that’s what we want. But what blessings will we miss?
George Macdonald was a writer and lecturer of the 19th century, whose works greatly influenced C.S. Lewis. Macdonald wrote a series of fantasy stories which he used to illustrate spiritual truth.
In one, called “The Gifts of the Child Christ” a little girl named Alice, who had heard in church “Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth”, thought a number of times throughout the story, “I wish He would chasten me”.
Having lived a life of what Macdonald described as a ‘sunless atmosphere’, in her home, she had no idea of the suffering she was already enduring compared to the relative ease of the lives of children around her. All she knew was that if God showed His love by chastening, she wanted to be chastened.
Do we have the courage to actually desire that God would test our faith?
For the joy of bringing many sons to glory, Jesus endured the cross of shame.
Would you be satisfied with where you are and go no further? Or are you willing to let Him continue now to mould you into the glorious creature He wants to make of you? Squeeze you a little. Give you some pressure to endure that, in the end, if you’ve endured it in faith and obedience will give you wings to fly!
Well, it’s not a comfortable process. When we’re comfortable the process isn’t taking place. But the rewards of yielding to the process are “…permanent, glorious and solid…and out of all proportion to our pain…”
